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Toure: I am staying at City

It has been speculated that the 32-year-old Ivory Coast international will be on his way this summer, following a somewhat disappointing trophy-less 2014-15 campaign for City.

Inter and Chelsea were suggested as possible destinations for the former Barcelona man but he still has two years left on his current contract and has now told the Manchester Evening News that he will be remaining at the Etihad.

“I will definitely stay,” he said. “The fans don’t have to be worried.

“My target this year is to try to do everything possible to make this team improve well.

“I am sure with my experience, (and) maybe I hope, with the players coming in a couple of weeks, a couple of months, definitely it is going to be a strong City next year.”

And Toure says Champions League glory for City is high on his agenda for the 2015/16 season.

“It is one of my big targets because City have been in the shadow of (Manchester) United for so long,” he said.

“Sometimes their fans are coming back, saying we are the top because we have already won the Champions League.

“What I want for the fans is the Champions League. I will do everything that’s possible.”

Toure has arguably been a little below his best this term, possible as a consequence of his participation in the World Cup last summer and then in the Ivory Coast’s victorious 2015 African Nations Cup campaign in Equatorial Guinea.

He will get a summer break this year and expects to return with batteries fully recharged.

“I am looking at next season and I will start working again, because last season there has been a lot of football for me,” said Toure.

“Now is a good time to rest and next season you are going to see the top one.”

Having stated at one point that Toure was “90 per cent certain” to leave City, his agent Dimitri Seluk now says the player will be staying after being assured by owner Sheikh Mansour that he remains a key figure.

And City manager Manuel Pellegrini has repeatedly expressed a preference for Toure to remain at the club.

Toure himself thinks he may even stay beyond the two years left on his contract.

“Football is like that,” he said. “You get a contract but, after, maybe you can continue doing something.

“For me, the target is to continue helping the club to the end.

“I think it is the first club where I have been where the fans have been singing my name for a long time. We have friends, people around you, fans always sing your name.